Apple's WWDC-Kickoff Video: Lame Poem or Convincing Argument?

Apple opened its WWDC keynote with a two-minute animation addressing its slim phone portfolio. Did you buy in, or roll your eyes?

It's been said that Apple would introduce two new iPhones this year, a high-end model and a less-expensive version for emerging markets, and it's been said that Apple would introduce them earlier than usual, to avoid giving Samsung another long summer during which to sell millions of flagship Galaxy S smartphones, unchallenged by a new iPhone.
Samsung has been outselling Apple, and in April Apple posted its first profit dip in a decade. Apple, it's been said, plans to better compete against Samsung with an Apple-style (which is to say, subtler) version of Samsung's more-is-more strategy.
But by the end of the two-hour keynote opening Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), it seemed pretty clear that no one was getting a new high-end iPhone before the fall. And if a prepaid version of the iPhone is in the works, nor would it be seeing the light of summer.
Indeed, before anyone set a foot on the stage, Apple neatly addressed all the above.

It started the show with a two-minute video—a stylized poem of sorts, in which it told the capacity audience at San Francisco's Moscone West convention center, and the countless others watching from its live-streaming feed, where it stands on design, timetables and the growth of its portfolio.

Joining a light piano piece and a black-and-white animation, these words came on the screen:

if everyone

is busy making everything

how can anyone perfect anything?

we start to confuse convenience

with joy

abundance with choice

designing something requires

focus

the first thing we ask is

what do we want people to feel?

delight

surprise

love

connection

then we begin to craft around our intention

it takes time...

there are a thousand no's

for every yes

we simplify

we perfect

we start over

until everything we touch

enhances each life

it touches

only then

do we sign our work.

Designed by Apple in California

"I'm really glad you like that," Apple CEO Tim Cook said as the lights went up, to great applause. "Those words mean a great deal to us."
But not everyone was sold.
"The poem embodies Apple's design principles and not-so-subtly begs for time to complete the tasks they've set for themselves. There has been an unusually long dry spell for Apple products, and the company has long since been outrun by the impossible expectations placed upon it," Roger Kay, principal analyst with Endpoint Technologies, told eWEEK.